Tinapa, Ecomarine and IMAN Meet with Imoke
From Anietie Akpan, Calabar
Operators of the Calabar Port, ECM Terminal, have sent a save-our-soul message to the Federal Government, calling for an urgent intervention in Calabar port. They claimed that business activities have been at a low ebb, threatening an investment of over $10 million already made.
As part of effort to make the port a preferred destination, the General Manager of ECM Terminal, Mr. Kingsley Iheanacho, said various equipment had been put in place and the sum of $38 million earmarked for port development and expansion project within the next three years.
When the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio, visited the terminal recently to see things for himself, Iheanacho listed the problems frustrating its growth to include bad state of roads, which makes it difficult accessing the eastern markets such as Aba, Nnewi, and Onitsha through Ikot Ekpene, and the North Central markets from Ikom.
"The Calabar Port has been bewitched by no conclusion of the channel dredging to a draft that would allow seafaring vessels to call the port directly and as at today; it is the number one deterrent to trade facilitation in spite of incentives provided by the Cross River State Government and the Port Operator, ECM Terminals."
He said: "The port has the capacity to hold two million tons of cargo annually, but with the present scenario, we are only utilising 25 per cent of our capacity even as at December 2008, considering the number of vessels worked.
Because of this situation, Iheanacho said: "TINAPA as at today is operating skeletally, despite the huge investment and the approval of its operational guidelines.
"Ninety per cent of the cargos billed for the developmental projects in the state have been redirected to other ports and this has led to huge increase in cost of project implementation in the state, which is having its impact on the citizens."
Worried by the situation, the terminal operators, ECM Terminals Limited, Tinapa, and the Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) have brainstormed with the state government on the way forward.
Rising from the one-day stakeholders meeting with Governor Senator Liyel Imoke recently, the group has resolved to work for the growth and progress of the port.
